Get Your “Head” Out of Social!

byJay Deragonon01/12/2010

Everyone is trying to figure out how to drive revenue, brand equity, market awareness and all related goals using social. Individuals and entire organization are constantly “thinking” about how to apply social to these goals.

Think tanks are being formed by the “BIG” to see how using social can enable them to capture a bigger share of the market. In other words everyone has got their head stuck up into the use of social to gain something measurable, valuable and economically rewarding.

What Is Wrong With “Thinking”?

Thinking about how to use social to achieve specific goals is a worthy mental exercise. However unless you “think” about the intent of all things social you can’t understand why buyers might not want to “connect” with you. Thinking about intent comes from the heart rather than the head.

I’ve engaged with a lot of smart people in my lifetime. Some smart people think they know a lot while others are smart because they know what they don’t know. The difference between the two is their social acumen. Social acumen is a skill set that reflects an understanding of how to “relate” with people’s heart (the emotions) and not just their head (the intellect). A lot of people are chasing an ROI from social media for several reasons including:

To satisfy upper management

To justify new media marketing efforts

To justify the expense

To justify how smart they are

Because the competition is

None of the above five motivations have anything to do with buyer intents or needs rather they have everything to do with satisfying management needs. What management needs is really an education about the dynamics of the marketplace and the intent of buyers. Until they understand these disruptive changes and learn the related dynamics they will continue to rely on old management methods that fuel irrelevant activity centered on justifying use of social media for the goal of an ROI.

Organizations and individuals who are consumed with thinking about ways to use social media to achieve measurable goals lack a social connection with the marketplace . Lacking that “connection” means you are not creating experiences that are emotionally rewarding. Rather you push out your proposition that may catch a few at a moment of intent while the many consider your lack of social acumen anti-social. When the few “take your bait” the subsequent experience is not even close to “being social.” It only takes a few to tell the many the experience they had trying to interact with you.

You can analyze “how to use” social media for your goals but miss the real intent that drives ROI, satisfying buyer intentions. Even if people don’t buy something as a result of your message doesn’t mean they won’t have an intent to buy in the future. Whether they buy in the future or not they are likely to tell their “friends” about their experiences with you, your organization and how well you did serving their intentions, not yours.

Get your “head” out of social and put your heart into it! What is the ROI in your heart?